ESA Graduate Trainee in Product Assurance Management

At ESA, Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) engineers help improve the likelihood of mission success by failure-proofing missions and ensuring that materials, mechanical parts, processes and electrical components used to assemble a spacecraft or launcher are fit for purpose over the entire life of a mission.

PA&S engineers provide engineering support for ESA activities, verify compliance with Product Assurance requirements, and represent an independent technical authority in the materials, mechanical parts, processes and electrical component domains.

They also help secure the availability of qualified materials, parts, processes and personnel for ESA missions by monitoring industry trends across technical domains to underpin Europe’s competitiveness in the space sector, guaranteeing short-, medium- and long-term access to critical technologies.

PA&S engineers establish and implement requirements and standards for the development and procurement of space-grade materials, components and related processes, helping maintain consistent European standards for space and ensuring consistency and agreement across the space sector in the quality of European products.

Space projects rely on embedded PA&S engineers to ensure hardware and software quality, product reliability, electronic components, standards, materials, mechanical parts, critical industrial fabrication processes and configuration control.

Their aim is to develop and promote a technical understanding of the effects of the space environment on materials and components. Their working tools include laboratories, test facilities, reviews, audits, and inspection of processes and products. PA&S engineers alert managers to potential quality problems and initiate corrective actions.

About this traineeship

This opportunity is for an ESA Graduate Trainee in Product Assurance Management.

Our team and mission

Project engineers are focused on making their space missions operate as planned. But such an optimistic approach is insufficient in the face of Murphy's Law, the well-known maxim that was originally taken from rocketry: “what can go wrong will go wrong.” To improve the likelihood of mission success, project teams are assisted by a separate class of personnel possessing a very different mind-set.

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As an integral part of the section team, you will be working in transversal Product Assurance and Safety topics to support our activities.

A new mission classification has been defined by ESA to allow tailoring of the requirements according to the profile of the mission. After the definition of the new mission classification, the new ways of working start to be rolled out and translated into our working tools and routines. The new mission classification imposes a big change of mindset in the PA&S domain. You will support the Section in this change by:

• Developing reference material (templates, checklists, guidelines, etc.) for the different class missions, engaging with the different Quality disciplines.
• Creating training material to ensure a common knowledge base within the Product Assurance and Safety community.
• Working to raise awareness of the changes introduced with the mission classification.
• Collecting lessons learned from projects in which this approach has already been introduced.

Technical competencies

• Knowledge of relevant technical/functional domains
• Relevant experience gained during internships, project work and/or extracurricular or other activities
• General knowledge of the space sector and relevant activities
• Knowledge of ESA and its programmes/projects

Behavioural competencies

• Result Orientation
• Operational Efficiency
• Fostering Cooperation
• Relationship Management
• Continuous Improvement
• Forward Thinking

Education

You should have recently completed or be in the final year of your master’s degree in Engineering or Science.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Previous experience of working in international teams can be considered an asset.

Important Information and Disclaimer

Applicants must be eligible to access information, technology, and hardware which is subject to European or US export control and sanctions regulations.

Nationality and Languages

Please note that applications can only be considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta as European Cooperating States (ECS).

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.